BUSINESS owners in Southport had the chance to quiz Sefton’s Chief Executive this week on the council’s plans for our town.

Margaret Carney attended an early morning meeting with traders at the Wayfarers Arcade in Lord Street.

Businesses were able to voice their concerns to Mrs Carney, who outlined the plan Sefton has in mind to the business owners.

Mrs Carney said at the meeting that it was great to be back in Southport

She added: “We have all these different people coming out with a view about retail centres.

“My view is there may well be reasons that Southport isn’t as thriving like it should be.

“Some of those will be national and some of those will be local.

“In terms of solutions I do not think we will be able to sit around and wait for government policy on retail.

“Yes there are some funding strings available and schemes, but fundamentally we need a strategy for retail and that has to be done in partnership.”

At the meeting it was revealed that the council have prioritised retail centres, allocating £300,000 worth of additional resources to these centres across the borough.

Mrs Carney admitted that this is ‘not a fortune’ but said that £50,000 of that had been given to Southport to come up with a ‘master plan.’

The Visiter understands that the plan will produce a strong strategy as to where Southport is going in the next 10 years.

Mrs Carney added: “Part of that process will be having those adult conversations on whether the size of the town centre is right.

“Like is it too narrow, do we have the right mix between retail and leisure activity businesses? Do we need more residential properties?

“The conversation needs to change to what we can do better, to collectively use the resource that we have got to produce the best benefits – rather spend more money which isn’t coming.”

Some of the other concerns and questions raised at the meeting included a potential reduction in business rates and infrastructure challenges such as the roads into Southport and the train line towards Manchester.

A hot topic on everyone’s lips was the parking review. Mrs Carney said the decision could be expected in ‘another month or so.’

She added: “We need to bring it all together. It is a real challenge for us because we have built into our budget plan for revenue to be raised in this way.

“It would be great if that could be raised by getting people into Southport rather than the parking charges.

“But we have got a real challenge, it is a fine balance in supporting the economy and raising the revenue the council needs.”